Feral

2 ⇞ Trust

"Tessa!" the man sitting at the desk of the large office greeted. He looked up from the papers he'd been looking over, the brownish red of his eyes meeting the pure ruby of her own. Tessa saw the flash of anger in his gaze at the noticeable difference in the color of their eyes before he quickly made his expression into one of welcome. She knew it was a facade, one many in the conclave believed. Some deep part of her was amused by how easily this man manipulated and controlled those he was meant to protect and help grow. The rest of her was just disgusted that he disregarded his role with such ease.

"Sire," she greeted, her face impassive. The sound of his official title coming from her lips would grate on his nerves and she saw the evidence of it in the slight tightening of the smooth skin around his eyes. They both knew why it bothered him so much when she used it, and she used it frequently. It was a reminder to him and she took pleasure in giving him that reminder.

"I called you here to inquire about the incident that occurred late last night," he said, the false calm of his tone enough to fool someone else. It wasn't enough to fool Tessa. Not that she was planning to point that out anytime soon. She had her plans.

And his ignorance was vital.

"The issue concerning the child in isolation?" Tessa asked, forcing herself to remain uninterested and cold. The anger that curled in her at the thought of what she'd discovered the previous night was hot and violent.

"Yes," he replied, a warning buried in his warm tone, "I've heard parts of what occurred from the guards and one the maid who was there, but I'd like to hear about what occurred from you. Specifically how you managed to get that child to be . . . civil."

Tessa blinked slowly, showing no reaction to his words, "Certainly Sire."

She ignored the warning that reappeared in his eyes and approached the chairs in front of his desk. She would have much rather continued to stand but that wouldn't get her anything, so instead Tessa sat in the stiff leather and began to recount the previous night's events, "I was told of the situation by one of my girls, of which I'm sure you've heard already and I won't bother recounting. After all, I wasn't present for those events.

"When I got to the room she'd been placed in after the unfortunate incident before this one, the girl had already incapacitated four guards and was huddled in the far corner of the room. She was wary of me, but tolerated my entrance into her territory."

She saw the slight lift of the man's brow at her terminology.

"The child has a very– animalistic mindset," she told him in way of explanation.

The door to the room opened and a guard stepped in. She heard the child growl at the foot the guard had placed over past the doorway. Tessa motioned for him to step back and the bone chilling sound ceased. She watched the girl carefully as she asked the guard to retrieve Maribel. She'd seen the glances the child had thrown at the discarded food on the floor. Tessa wasn't stupid. She knew there was something wrong with it, had caught the smallest hints of a drug with each breath she took.

And the child in front of her wasn't a creature that acted without reason.

As she waited for the guard to bring Maribel, Tessa did her best to communicate her thoughts to the child without the use of words. It was difficult and she spent several minutes of motioning to the girl with no significant responses before she succeeded in getting what she wanted. She pointed to the discarded food and slowly moved her hand to grab her nose while the other waved in the air as if there were a bad smell. Not expecting to get a response from the girl, she'd been surprised to see the girl nod.